Solar San Antonio iis a non-profit 501 (c)(3) advocacy and resource center for renewable and sustainable energy applications. Utilizing community education and outreach, we strive to decrease energy costs and improve the quality of life in San Antonio and South Texas.

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

Job Losses and the Green Economy: A Plan for a Sustainable San Antonio

A report published today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that the national unemployment rate rose from 9.8% in September to 10.2% during the month of October; the highest measured rate since April 1983. 190,000 jobs were lost, up from the monthly average of 188,000. Of these job losses, the construction industry suffered 62,000 job losses, accounting for nearly 35% of the witnessed decline.

The manufacturing sector was also hit in the month of October with 61,000 job losses, bringing the total to 2.1 million jobs lost in this sector since December 2007.

Passions over job losses rose late in October as a Chinese manufacturer was contracted to supply wind turbines for the biggest wind farm yet to be built in America, right here at home in the state of Texas, all financed by a bank in Beijing seeking the return on that investment.

As stimulus money continues to pour into the American green economy in the form of tax credits to boost renewable energy technology manufacturing and to reduce the up-front cost of residential and commercial installations, all eyes are on the numbers of jobs created in the slumped U.S. economy to prove the reinvestment’s effectiveness.

The pieces are in place to bring the U.S. job market back into the green, yet those numbers seem to indicate that the opportunities offered by the renewable energy market are still not being utilized to their full potential here in the U.S.

As Americans continue to disagree over the market development strategies proposed by the current presidential administration, the visions of energy independence and sustainable economic development continue to loom somewhere on the horizon. Workers in the construction and manufacturing sectors already possess the skills needed to begin working in the green economy as manufacturers of solar panels and wind turbines or as installers of these technologies; all that remains is to train them in these fields and position them to take advantage of the possibilities that change can promise.

Working together, we can enable our local community to find work in rebuilding San Antonio’s energy infrastructure, freeing us from our dependence on energy imports from foreign powers and revitalizing our economy in the process.

Numerous organizations here in town are already working to provide training opportunities in renewable energy. Solar photovoltaic and solar hot water installer training courses are available today and are becoming increasingly affordable as local partnerships are formed to provide funding for course tuitions.

Other programs, such as the Villareal Bill, HB 1937, will provide for low-interest loans to homeowners and business owners who wish to install renewable energies on their buildings, and increase the demand for solar in our city.

The CPS Solartricity Producers Program will further increase solar implementation.

If we really wanted to act comprehensively, we could embrace the Sustainability report prepared by Jeremy Rifkin. That report offers a plan to transition San Antonio into the first post-carbon municipality in the U.S. The transition process will produce thousands of jobs and numerous new businesses. [to read the report, visit our website at www.solarsanantonio.org]

We are on the brink of the solar age and San Antonio can take a leadership position in making the transition.